


One Step Forward

by CloakedSparrow



Series: Collected Bat-Family Stories [23]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Adopted Children, Bat Family, Bat-Dad, DaddyBats, Dysfunctional Family, Family Fluff, Family Issues, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Jason has a potty mouth, No Romance, No Smut, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 06:21:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13161087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CloakedSparrow/pseuds/CloakedSparrow
Summary: Wanting to improve their relationship, Bruce decides to invite Jason to dinner at the manor. It doesn't go as smoothly as planned, but he thinks he's making progress anyway.Or: Bruce finally stops using the eggplant emoji.





	One Step Forward

**Author's Note:**

> Blame (or thank) [mmw2014](http://archiveofourown.org/users/mmw2014/pseuds/mmw2014) for this.
> 
> This story follows the previous one in this series, but can be read alone as well.

Bruce had been trying to make it a point to include his middle children in his life more as of late. He actually wanted to be more involved in each of his children’s lives, but he found he didn’t have to work as hard with Dick and Damian. 

The others were just so independent and resourceful (which Bruce was immensely proud of) that he didn’t have to keep an eye on them as he did with his youngest, or used to when Dick was a child. They simply didn’t require that type of guidance. 

And as much as he hated to consider it, Jason, Cassandra, and Tim were more damaged than their other brothers. They were less certain of their relationship with him, less confident of their worth, especially in the eyes of their father. They wouldn’t just drop by the way Dick did or demand his time the way Damian did. They didn’t want to be a bother or overstay their welcome. Bruce wasn’t even sure if they realized they were welcome at all until recently.

Of the three, he was on the most even footing with Cassandra. His daughter was always so direct and not nearly as sensitive as her brothers, it made communicating with her much easier. Neither of them ever took the other’s seemingly cold demeanor to heart. If she was unsure of something, she tended to ask about it outright. If he crossed a line, she called him on it right away and then moved on once he got it. 

Recently, he tried sending her some things to use with her dance lessons, balance bars and the like. She immediately let him know that her apartment was her space and she didn’t appreciate him or anyone trying to alter it. He responded by letting her know he’d only been trying to show his support of her new hobby. They wrote it off as a misunderstanding and then arranged to meet for lunch to discuss how he might alter the cave and one of the rooms in the manor to accommodate her dance practice when she visited. That was the end of the issue. 

It was never that simple with the boys. 

Jason tended to get angry and then cut Bruce out of his life until he’d calmed. But then they didn’t bring it up again for fear of restarting the argument and to be honest, Bruce was about fifty-fifty on his ability to figure out what exactly had set his son off to begin with. Bruce needed to find a way to bring up their issues without making Jason feel like he was being judged or blamed, and so far he’d been largely unsuccessful on that front. 

Tim internalized everything and tended to assume the problem lied with himself, so he thought he needed to fix it himself. That meant that most of the time Bruce upset him, or was needed for moral support, he missed it entirely. Even when he caught on or one of the others pointed out that there was a problem, Bruce rarely knew how to approach it without making his second youngest feel like he’d failed him somehow. 

Spending more time with his kids seemed to be helping. He learned (or relearned, in some cases) their tells. They were coming to realize that his inability to notice their emotional state wasn’t a sign of disinterest or disappointment, but just a sign of distraction on his part or simply a flaw in his personality. Everyone was learning each other’s boundaries, flaws, and strengths. 

More importantly, everyone was coming to appreciate each other more, find points of commonality, and enjoy each other’s company. Bruce loved spending time with his children, but he found he loved watching and hearing about them spending time with each other just as much. Especially when it was mostly unrelated to their night lives. 

Despite this, Bruce thought it might be a good idea to start spending more one-on-one time with his children. While he was glad they had each other, they needed to know they could come to him. They needed to understand that they were each equally important to him. 

Bruce already spent one-on-one time with Damian and Dick, and he knew he was on solid ground with Cassandra, so he decided to focus on Jason and Tim for a while. It occurred to him that he never asked either of them over to the manor unless it was about a case or helping another member of the family. 

He sent a quick text to Jason, to see if his second son had any dinner plans. Wanting to keep it light so his son wouldn’t think something was wrong, he decided to use emoji. He still didn’t quite get the little smilies and symbols, but his kids used them often enough in their family text chain that he figured it was something he should try to learn to use. 

He was surprised when his phone rang immediately afterwards, with the caller ID identifying Jason’s phone as the source of the call. 

“Jason, is everything alright?” Bruce tried to keep his tone light, but it was abnormal for Jason to call him. Usually, the young man preferred to contact him through one of his siblings, the family text chain, or the family comm. 

“Bruce?” Jason sounded surprised that his father had answered. 

Bruce wondered if his son had mis-dialed or had expected to leave a message. “Yeah. Wh-”

“What the _fuck_ , B? I thought someone had your phone!” 

Bruce was oddly touched at the agitation in his son’s voice. Between that and the swiftness in which he’d returned the call, it was clear he’d been worried. Still, he hadn’t meant to upset him. He actually wasn’t sure why he’d reached that conclusion to begin with. “No, I was just thinking you might want to join-”

“Why are you texting about my penis? ‘Cause if that was your idea of a dad joke, you’re even more fucked up than anyone realizes.” Jason seemed to consider something else in the space of a breath, because he quickly followed that up. “And if this is you trying to be ‘more involved’ like Dick said, then let me tell you right now, we will _never_ discuss my sex life.”

By this point, Bruce had already face-palmed. Tim had told him -looking nearly as uncomfortable as Bruce had ever seen him- about the ‘eggplant emoji as a penis proxy’ issue. He’d thought he had a handle on how to properly use it after that discussion, but clearly, he’d been mistaken. 

In light of Jason’s confusion and irritation, he decided an honest explanation was the only way to hope to handle it. 

“I was trying to invite you home to dinner. I’m still figuring out the whole emoji thing and Tim warned me about the eggplant, but I thought I understood it well enough to-”

“Just don’t use the fucking eggplant. _Ever_. Okay? Jesus, twelve year olds know that...”

“Yeah, I think it might be best if I just stick to text-”

“Wait." Jason interrupted again. His tone indicating he'd just latched onto some piece of information he'd missed before. " _Tim_ talked to you about this already?”

“I, uh, accidentally sent him a very inappropriate message.” Bruce hoped there were no follow up questions about that. He didn’t want to think about it any more. Ever, if possible.

“You inadvertently sexted your sixteen year old and still tried using the same fucking emoji?” Jason managed to sound incredulous, aggravated, and teasing all at once. “Can you ever just admit you’re not getting it?”

Bruce took a steadying breath. He really wanted to get past the emoji mishap already, but he had to concede that Jason had a point. Plus, he knew his son had grown more protective of his siblings lately, and he was happy about that fact. “I won’t use it again, alright? So about dinner, did you have any plans tonight?”

“I’m taking out a human trafficking ring tonight. Why? What do you have?”

It was clear by his tone that Jason assumed Bruce wanted his help with something. Bruce wanted to correct that, but was slightly caught off by what his son had just said. “There’s a human trafficking ring in Gotham?” He thought he’d taken all of those out already. 

“Yeah, its a new one the Whisper Gang just started. Poor girls think they’re being shipped over from the Ukraine to marry lonely, wealthy men, only to get beaten into submission and turned into drug mules. Figure I’ll snuff it out before it gets a foothold in the underground.”

The Whisper Gang was well armed, well trained, and well manned. While Bruce knew Jason was as good as any member of his family, he didn’t think any of them should be taking the gang on alone unless it absolutely couldn’t be avoided. He just needed to try to approach that idea in a manner that wouldn’t set Jason on the defensive. Or piss him off. Or both.

“I don’t have anything going on tonight, actually. That’s why I was thinking we could have dinner. Maybe I could join you instead?”

There was a brief moment of silence. Then Jason replied, sounding like he to was trying not to set anything off. “That’s fine, B. I got this. You know, Dick’s trying to arrange a family dinner...something about Bat-Pizza reopening after the Firefly incident? So I guess we’ll be seeing each other soon.”

“I really don’t think any member of the family should be taking on the Whisper Gang alone if it can be helped, Jason. They’re as well trained as the Yakuza.” It was blunt, but at least Bruce had managed not to single Jason out. 

He could swear he heard Jason take a steadying breath like the one he’d taken a moment ago. “It’s fine, B. I’ve got Timbers and Cass backing me up. Plus the guns really even things out.”

Bruce wasn’t sure if that last comment was a slip, a test, or a jab. He hated that Jason used guns, hated that he was so comfortable taking lives. He was glad Jason had asked his siblings to support him, and that they’d agreed, but he knew there was a better way than going in and starting a shootout. 

He tried to keep his tone calm, to hide the disappointment and disapproval as well as he could. 

“If you have Tim and Cassandra, then you don’t need the guns, Jason. The three of you can take them down without any casualties. Opening fire is only going to encourage them to return fire. Tim or Cassandra could get-”

“That was a _joke_ , B; what kind of asshole do you think I am? Can you just not look past the fucking guns or what? Do you actually think Tim and Cass would just be cool with me going in and shooting everyone? And do you really think we wouldn’t have planned it out to make sure they wouldn’t get caught in the crossfire? Do you think my plan would be to go in hot when there are innocent women there _in addition_ to my little brother and sister?! Fuck Bruce, I thought you knew better than that by now!”

With that, Jason ended the call. 

Bruce felt awful. Of course he should have considered each of the points Jason made. His kids were expert detectives and tacticians. They knew shadow warfare the way most kids knew Disney songs. He should have asked what their plan was instead of making assumptions. He shouldn’t have assumed he had something better offhand. 

“Shit.”

He tried calling Jason and was alerted that his voicemail had never been set up. He sent a couple texts asking if they could talk but received no reply. 

Not knowing what else to do, he called Tim next. If he couldn’t patch things up with Jason by tonight at least he could find out what their plan was. 

Tim’s greeting set the conversation on another course, however. 

“Hey. Is this about Jason?”

Bruce blinked. “Has he already filled you in?”

He could hear rapid typing in the background. “He’s sent some texts. Or texted some rants, more like.” The typing stopped as Tim gave the conversation his full attention. “What exactly did you say to him?”

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t recall my exact words. He told me about taking on the Whisper Gang and mentioned you and Cassandra _and_ his guns. I told him he didn’t need them; that it would only lead to a firefight; that you and Cassandra could get hurt.” 

“He didn’t mention that there would be civilians present?” Tim’s tone wasn’t accusing. Unlike Bruce, the young detective was making sure he had all the information before reaching a conclusion. 

It made Bruce feel worse than an accusation would have. Especially since Jason _had_ mentioned that, with notable sympathy for said civilians. “You mean the girls caught up in the trafficking ring?”

“And you thought the plan was to go in shooting?” Now Tim sounded a little bewildered, and a little unsure, like he thought he must be missing something.

Bruce felt even worse for making his second youngest doubt himself. “I wasn’t thinking. You know how I feel about the guns.”

“And you know how Cass and I feel about the guns...and how Jason feels about us.” Tim sounded even less sure about that. Like he wasn’t sure that Bruce knew better when it came to them. “For the record, he isn’t planning on killing anyone. He needs to bring the guns though, because everyone knows Red Hood is the Bat who’s willing to kill. And most aren’t sure about Red Robin or Black Bat yet. 

“As you know, the Whisper Gang is well trained. If they’re scared they’re about to be taken out by Red Hood, that gives us a head start to take down their security system while they pull themselves together. Then, Jason and Cass are going to hold them off in the old subway tunnels while I sneak the civilians out. Once I have them at the safe house Jason prepared nearby, I’ll alert the GCPD and the three of us are going to contain whoever’s left for Gordon’s men”.

It was a good plan. Jason was actually using his guns the way Bruce used the Bat. He hadn’t thought he could feel much worse about his reaction, but he did. “Like I said, I wasn’t thinking. Now he won’t answer my calls or texts.”

Tim released a quiet sigh. “That’s because you texted ‘we need to talk’. No apology. No acknowledgement that you were mistaken or that he was right to be angry. Jason doesn’t want a fight with this, Bruce. He needs to know you aren’t going to start one before he answers your calls.”

Again, his son didn’t sound accusing. Actually, he sounded a little sympathetic. As if Bruce couldn’t be expected to understand what he'd done wrong without assistance. 

Bruce wasn’t sure how he felt about that, but he was willing to accept the assist. Especially since he actually hadn’t known how to approach the problem with Jason without making it worse. 

“Alright. I’m going to try again with Jason. If you’re still texting him, let him know I don’t want a fight either. And Tim? Be careful tonight.”

“I will. Don’t worry, we know what we’re doing. We were trained by a real badass.” 

Bruce laughed softly at both his son’s words and the smile he could hear in his voice. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Good luck with Jay.”

“Thanks.” Bruce ended the call and considered his phone for a moment before sending another text to his second eldest. _I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. I should have known better. I don’t want to fight. Just be careful._

Nearly half an hour passed before he received a text in response. ‘ _I will_ ’

That was followed by another about forty minutes later. ‘ _Having dinner with Tim tomorrow U in?_ ’

Bruce smiled. It wasn’t what he’d had in mind, but maybe his kids knew better than he did. In any case, it was a good start. 

He was tempted to use the eggplant again. If it were Dick or Damian, he would have. His eldest would laugh and his youngest would roll his eyes and rant about it. But Jason was different. Bruce needed to make sure he saw that he was respected. 

He sent a thumbs up instead. 

There would be room for teasing his second eldest later, once they were on stronger footing. He was sure of it. 

He was actually looking forward to it.


End file.
